“neutrality” strikes again: banned band shirts in MO (evolution/religion dispute)

A story by Tonya Fennell for the Sedalia (MO) Democrat reports on the action taken by Assistant Superintendent Brad Pollitt in response to complaints from some parents about T-shirts designed for the school marching band’s program, “Brass Evolutions 2009.” Pollitt says he “made the decision to have the band members turn the shirts in after [...]

ICR tries again in suit over grad “science ed” degree in Texas

Unwilling to deal with the hilariously hideous complaint that was filed initially by the Institute for Creation Research in their attempt to get accreditation for their graduate degree program in “science education,” the judge ordered ICR to file an amended complaint, and then a second amended complaint, with a maximum page limit of 20 pages.
The [...]

Comer decision appealed

added 8/31/2009: The case of the banned band T-shirts in Missouri may be eerily related to this case.
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Chris Comer, who was forced out of her job as Science head in the Texas Education Agency for forwarding an email announcement of a talk by Barbara Forrest in Austin, has filed her brief appealing the decision by [...]

TX “experts” and revision of the state Social Studies standards

Unlike school “Science,” the school subject(s) of “Social Studies” has no such well established recognized identity. If the Texas State Board of Education succeeds unchallenged in accepting people like David Barton to serve as “experts” on Social Studies, this reinforces the establishment of Social Studies as a school subject in which political, ideological, and religious agendas can be played out on the basis of sheer political power, unchecked by anything like the authority of experts in the disciplines.

the Comer decision: What “disputed issues”?

While awaiting news on whether the decision against Chris Comer’s suit against the TEA will be appealed, I have finally gotten around to reading the opinion by District Court Judge Lee Yeakel (not to be confused with the Simpson’s character).
There’s a serious problem in the judge’s analysis (and the TEA’s argument), but to take advantage [...]

Haynes: “religion by any other name is still religion”

Charles Haynes, senior scholar with the First Amendment Center, has posted and syndicated an excellent new column on the First Amendment’s prohibition of religious teaching in public schools — even when such teaching is not explicitly “religious.”
The column responds to a controversy reported in the Los Angeles Times over the “Spirituality for Kids,” program — [...]

Update: appeal v. U Cal win on admissions policy

The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has posted an update on developments in the case of Association of Christian Schools International [ACSI] et al. v. Roman Stearns et al. [The University of California].
The suit was brought against U.Cal. by Christian schools complaining that UC’s refusal to count certain courses in their schools for purposes [...]

ICR post re: Texas lawsuit

An article has now been posted on the ICR website with the title “Censorship in Texas: Fighting Academic and Religious Discrimination.”
It’s more of the same, but I think it vindicates a couple points that I raised more speculatively in my previous post on the ICR lawsuit:
1. I wrote, “It’s written in the kind of language [...]

Creationist “grad school” sues over Texas “science education” degree accreditation

Added August 2009: Refusing to deal with the Complaint discussed below, the judge ordered that a new complaint must be filed before the lawsuit could proceed. Click here for the ICR’s second amended complaint.
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The Institute for Creation Research Graduate School (ICR/ICRGS) has filed a lawsuit (April 16, 2009) against the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board [...]

Audio & Video: Eugenie Scott (NCSE) at TX SBOE hearings 2009-03-25

Audio of Eugenie Scott’s testimony is now posted at
https://tw-curricuwiki.wikispaces.com/EugenieScottTexasMarch252009
March 27: YouTube video is now added on the page linked above.
You won’t want to miss her interchange with creationist Board member Cynthia Dunbar.
Other audio from this week are now posted at https://tw-curricuwiki.wikispaces.com/TXSBOE_March2009_Audio.

TX SBOE’s s “not-religion” problem

Throughout the day, SBOE majority members seemed baffled by how one speaker after another was talking about them interjecting religion, when they insisted they were doing no such thing.
This time, I think they are honestly baffled. They’re thinking that ID or religion is not being brought into the classroom if nobody is talking about a [...]

what is TX SBOE trying to get from its science standards hearings?

I hope that someone undertakes the task of systematically analyzing how the SBOE majority engaged with different speakers testifying in the November 19 session.
They spent lots of time engaging with their supporter, while vastly more qualified speakers were rushed from the microphone without a single question (e.g., Ellington).
It could be demonstrated that these guys are [...]

DI’s legal eagles & the “Academic Freedom” legislation

Commenting on an earlier post, Ed Darrell writes:
It seems quite clear that whoever drafted the law has very little experience in drafting laws, and less experience in trying to carry out such laws.
From a press release by the Louisiana Coalition for Science, we learn that
DI senior fellow and legal advisor, Gonzaga University law professor David [...]

U.C. wins ACSI case

In a decision dated August 8, 2008, a federal district court in California has thrown out a lawsuit brought by the Association of Christian Schools International against the University of California, in which the ACSI argued that the University’s refusal to approve some of the Christian schools’ courses violated First Amendment guarantees to freedom of [...]

Texas Supreme Court immunizes exorcism

I hesitated before posting this, since it’s almost off-topic for this blog on curriculum.
Regrettably, however, exorcism is not so irrelevant to public education as we might hope, given the signing of the anti-science education law by the Louisiana Governor Jindal who also, by the way, has written a published article retelling his participation in an [...]

ICR appeals TX decision against creationist grad degree for science teachers

The Institute for Creation Research has announced its appeal seeking reversal of the decision by the Texas higher education board against accreditation for its distance education masters degree in “science education,” which would presumable have qualified its graduates for certification as science teachers in Texas (and, they would hope, licensing as science teachers in other [...]

high school student finds conservative bias

added May 2, 2008
For links to other posts on LaClair, see this post on the Five Public Opinions blog. Click here for a transcript of his acceptance speech for the FFRF 2007 Thomas Jefferson Student Activist Award, and click here for an audio recording of the speech.
In a new (April 27, 2008) Op-Ed piece in [...]